Bastard Nation advocates for the civil and human rights of adult citizens who were adopted as children. Millions are prohibited by law from accessing personal records that pertain to their historical, genetic and legal identities. Such records are held by their governments in secret and without accountability, due solely to the fact that they were adopted.
Bastard Nation campaigns for the restoration of their right to access their records. End a hidden legacy of shame, fear and venality.

Sunday, June 12, 2005

Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, Ph.D., has been waging a nasty smear campaign against Bill 183, which would open adoption information to adoptees and birthparents subject to a contact veto (punishable by fine if violated). While Bastard Nation is opposed to this bill because of the contact veto, Cavoukian's relentless war on this legislation has no doubt been damaging for future efforts. We encourage Canadian Bastards to respond to this nonsense, whenever it appears in the media.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Controversy surrounding Ontario's Bill 183, which includes open records provisions for both adoptees and birthparents, has led to publication of some of the craziest Op/Ed pieces on our issue that I have ever witnessed. And here I thought Canada viewed itself as more progressive-minded on social issues than the United States. Well not when it comes to adoptees and their records! On Friday, June 10th, Adam Radwanski of The National Post published an editorial ,which unfortunately is available for subscribers only. Heck, it might be worth subscribing just to see what other scary anti-adoptee nonsense Adam and his cohorts concoct in the future.

Just a few lines of what Adam said:

"Prompted by her latest round of questioning, Mr. McGuinty announced in November that his government would move forward with a new adoption disclosure law. And this March, it did just that -- introducing legislation to help adult children gain access to information about their birth parents, and vice versa."

(Um, "adult children"?????)

"There's no question that the initiative is well-intentioned, or that some of its end results -- notably increased access to family medical history -- would do considerable good. But those positives are overshadowed by the fact that, if implemented in its present form, the legislation threatens to shake Ontarians' trust in their province's government and system of law, spawn an array of personal heartbreaks and tragedies, and push prospective mothers toward ending their pregnancies rather than putting their children up for adoption."

(Yo Adam!! Adoptees and birthparents already find each other in Ontario, ALL THE TIME!!! Ain't nothing new, and it ain't dependent on this legislation! And, how odd that women aren't storming into the abortion clinics in Oregon, Alabama, and New Hampshire, which have all opened records unconditionally to adult adoptees since 1998.)

and..."True, birth control and legalized abortion have already drastically reduced the number of Canadian-born children put up for adoption. But for, say, a pregnant 18-year-old otherwise inclined to carry her child to term and let someone else raise it, how much more tempting will it be to terminate the pregnancy if she's now faced with the possibility of her life being torn apart when she's 36 and the kid turns up on her doorstep?"

(Adam... we're already ON the doorsteps... terrorizing birth mothers and chuckling while we watch the 18 year-old pregnant teens next door run screaming for the abortion clinics once they realize that the horror being visited on their neighbor could happen to them as well!)

For the record, Bastard Nation does not support Bill 183, because it contains an egregious provision that would allow birthparents to put adoptees under legal restraint, punishable by a huge fine ($50,000) if violated. That hardly smells like adoptee rights to us. Nevertheless, we are still outraged by the anti-adoptee nonsense being spewed forth by the media in Ontario and are concerned about its impact for future efforts at good reform.

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